The Wife of His Youth Character Analysis

Mr. Ryder/Sam Taylor

Mr. Ryder is the protagonist of “The Wife of His Youth.” At the start of the story, he is a middle-aged, mixed-race man living in a Northern city 25 years after the end of the… read analysis of Mr. Ryder/Sam Taylor

Eliza Jane

Eliza Jane is Mr. Ryder’s long-lost wife, a formerly enslaved woman whom he married while apprenticing as a young man on a plantation. After overhearing a conversation between the plantation owner, Bob Smith… read analysis of Eliza Jane

Molly Dixon

Molly Dixon is the woman whom Mr. Ryder intends to marry before his chance reencounter with his former wife, Eliza Jane. She is much younger, lighter-skinned, and better-educated than him. Before coming to Groveland… read analysis of Molly Dixon

Minor Characters

Bob Smith

Bob Smith owned the plantation where Sam Taylor (who later became Mr. Ryder) apprenticed and where Eliza Jane was enslaved. After Eliza Jane warned Sam that Smith planned to sell him into slavery—which allowed Sam to escape—Smith sold Eliza Jane in retaliation, resulting in the couple’s 25-year separation.